Fosamax, vaccination confusion

Two recent stories on ABC's national news may have done more harm than good. The first one was about drugs used for osteoporosis, stating that a handful of people (of the millions who use them) have broken their femurs. The next day they did a follow-up, to say that most people who are on the drugs are safe, but I can only imagine how many spooked patients called their doctors asking for an explanation.
Last night, there was a story that was supposed to explain how, after a 19 month law suit, it was decided that vaccines do not cause autism. This story just glossed over the facts, but included an emotionally charged interview with a mother of an autistic child who insisted that it was a conspiracy, conducted by government scientists, working for government judges, who all, for some reason, want to give kids autism.
The first story, in my eyes, failed to convey that 99.999% of the time, drugs for osteoporosis prevent bone fractures, not cause them. And the second story failed to mention that all of the authors of the study linking vaccines and autism have withdrawn their names, while the lead author of the study was convicted of fraud. Also, no mention that herd immunity is not as strong as it used to be, so the dangers of not being vaccinated are exponentially greater.
So, if you're not satisfied with Diane Sawyer's news, just come to this blog!

Tax Refund Paradox

I am poor, so I am rich. Or, going under in order to stay afloat. These paradoxes came to mind when we did our taxes yesterday. We were shocked to find out that Arizona is giving us a $50 tax refund, although we didn't pay any state income tax. And the federal government is giving us $800 just for being poor, plus EIC, not to mention the full refund of what we paid during the year! Is this a stable economic situation, paying out lots of money to those who don't pay taxes? How long can this last? I'm not going to complain right now, being on the plus side... but I'm not looking forward to watching my money be so generously distributed to the economically challenged!

Update on the metric system

Among readers of this blog, it is decided that we believe the inch/mile/ounce/gallon system is preferred. However, the statistical significance is poor if we want to know the opinion of all Americans. Maybe we should get the census gatherers to ask the same question, and get some more data on this interesting topic.

021010- Baby's 3 month picture

Here it is again another picture of our baby!! We had a doctor's appointment today, they took another ultrasound, so we could see how him/her looks like right now, from last month. The baby was moving a lot, up and down, it was so good to see him/her, with the little hand on the head, our heart felt overwhelmed with joy and gratitude for this blessing of our great miracle of life!!

Joke book

I have been thinking about becoming an amateur comedian, maybe writing some joke book. How about these: What street does a lion live on? Mane Street! Or where might you find Mrs Butterworths' house? On Maple Street! I just need 99 more for a "101 great jokes" book. My wife says if I can get a joke book published and make money on it I can drop out of PA school...

Grapefruits revisited

We had a strong storm sweep through on Monday night. Trees were uprooted, branches all over the roads. My wife had the bright idea of harvesting some of the many grapefruit that were naturally shaken off the trees. So on the way home from seminary we picked a big bag of grapefruit from the trees in front of the hospital, where we got the one from the previous blog post. We counted it as our daily good deed (cleaning up debris from the storm) and look forward to eating the fresh fruit and juice as they become ripe. :D x 10!

2nd Report Card

I got A's in pharmacology, physical diagnosis, and epidemiology. And a bunch of B's. 6 more months of classes and then rotations.